The present invention relates to an optical disk device and, more particularly, to an optical disk device having two optical heads for accessing both sides of an optical disk at the same time.
A conventional optical disk device has only a single optical head. Although an optical disk device having two optical heads for accessing both sides of an optical disk at the same time has been extensively discussed, the discussion has been only conceptual and has not achieved any practical implementation. Nevertheless, an optical disk device with such a capability may be derived from the conventional device having a single optical head, as follows. A conventional optical disk device which accesses only one side of a disk and has a spindle motor for driving an optical disk, a first optical head for reading information out of the disk, and a main base on which the motor and first head may be additionally provided with a second optical head independent of the first head, and a subbase for carrying the second head therewith. Then, the device is capable of accessing both sides of a disk at the same time by moving each of the first and second heads to a predetermined position.
However, in the above construction, a magnetic circuit for driving the first optical head should also be mounted on the subbase. This brings about a drawback that the overall weight of the subbase is increased to result in the need for a bulky and large-output loading mechanism for moving the subbase.